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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Still WWII Rules

Three notes this evening:

(1)

I have just received my copy of John Curry's "British Army Tactical Wargame 1956" which is filled with fascinating data on planning cycles, movement rates, and the like. Written by professionals with experience on the WWII and Korean War battlefields, should be a gold mine.

This was my first order from Lulu and I am impressed. Solidly made, stapled spine and fulfillment from a company in Canada-- received promptly and while I am not a fanatic about these things its nice to not be a 100% importer of my hobby books.

(2)

I have swung around to a change of heart in unit representation. If we take a stand to equal a company,. we end up expecting it to act like a company -- cover the frontage of a company, take initiative like a company, lead its own existence like a company. That pushes awareness down a level too far for my purposes. If I take a stand to 100 men (or ten vehicles) and the basic unit to be the battalion, then the player (who should be thinking divisions or at least brigades anyway) may manipulate the stands of the battalion as part of the battalion performing its mission, but they are just a representation. It also makes it a bit easier to pace the degradation of battalion capability as numbers are lost.

(3)

Written orders. Not the thing for a "club night" game these days -- writing seems seriously out of fashion. On the other hand, looking at the basic doctrine of WWII it is hard to see how we can get away without at least recorded objectives, artillery fire plans and the like. These don't have to be written for each turn but some mechanism seems essential to constrain telepathic opportunism, especially if we are to eschew random aids to represent a formation's failure to do whatever the commander desires.

(4)

Four, four notes. OK - concealment. Critical to the success of those nasty lads with their tiny we anti-tank guns. Blinds might work. So might allowing some "key concealment" units to be attached to more visible units and not revealed otherwise. So an AT gun could be deployed with an infantry unit and only revealed when it fires.

Maybe. A general referee-free solution to the concealment problem would be far better. Blinds? Strictly limiting orders before deployment? I really don't know just yet.